Photo courtesy of Geekwire.com.

Humans have historically had a mixed relationship with artificial intelligence. For every R2-D2, there's a HAL 9000, for every Data, a Skynet, for every IBM Watson... an IBM Watson cookbook.

And so it is with lawyers and smart machines. Technology is equipping innovative attorneys and their firms to be more efficient, deliver more value to clients, and eliminate make-work time better spent on case strategy and maneuvering. It is also, on the other side of the sword, taking a shiv to billable hours, gutting entire business departments, and removing the lowest rungs of legal work and workers.

Legal professionals entering the workforce and vets who've made a living off activities that computers do better and faster face an inflection point -- one that technology guru Matt Coatney argues can be successfully navigated in five steps.

In this CullCast, Coatney, a director at WilmerHale and founder of Five Spot Research, tells how smart machines are revolutionizing the legal profession, impacting its economics, and threatening the livelihoods of those set in their ways.

CullCast spotlights the innovators, influencers and disrupters in law and technology who are revolutionizing the legal profession. You can listen to and download the podcast below. Look for it in iTunes and on Soundcloud.